The Saving Letter
by FitzLeonard
Summary: Tenzin attempts to comfort Lin for her subordinates' capture. Not going to be a oneshot anymore :3
1. From me to you

**Disclaimer rights are applied here.**

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**"Hey."**

**"Yeah?"**

**"It would be totally awesome if we get grandchildren together."**

**"Ha ha ha. Yeah. It would be totally awesome."**

**"And they would be totally awesome like me when they grow up. The greatest earthbenders in the world."**

**"I'd rather have them as airbenders. You know? Populate the Air Nomads again?"**

**"Well... I guess I'd understand. I just have to live with the fact that my grandkids would be wimpy. You know? Like their grandfather."**

Tenzin was outside, ignoring the pouring rain. He was wearing totally different clothes than his usual Air Nomad colors so as to avoid attention. He was in a district wherein a councilman would be unfit to be seen. He even sported a hat and a pair of black gloves to hide his arrows. It was a thing he hated since, like his father, he was very proud of his blue tattoos.

But this time he would make an exception. He was already in front of his destination. It was a pub. It's washed out sign was already about to fall off being a few centimeters off on it's right side. He sighed at this but that was not really his intention on being there.

So he entered the building.

He found her drinking alone on a stool in front of the bartender's stand.

Tenzin sighed and shook his head. He approached her and sat on the empty stool beside her. Lin ignored him but he knew his presence aggravated her. She started to shake her leg, a sign he knew all to well that she wanted to leave soon. Very soon.

The bartender approached him Tenzin. The airbender was glad he did not recognised him and was about to refuse an order but the young man was already in front of him so Tenzin raised a finger and the bartender quickly understood to give him a shot. Smooth fire whiskey was what he served him.

Lin turned her head towards Tenzin. Her eyes widened as he drank the strong alcohol in one gulp.

As for him, he wanted to spit the liquid. He felt his eyes get teary but he wanted to relate to the woman beside him. The liquid burned his throat and as it traveled down to his stomach, he felt the warmness that made his guts boil.

Lin took the small glass away from Tenzin and gave it back to the bartender. "What are you doing here, Tenzin?" She hissed.

"Your subordinates told me you were out drinking." Tenzin replied flatly. He knew it was not the answer she wanted to hear and to his expectation she grunted as a reply.

"Walk away Tenzin. Stop ruining my night." She said.

"I haven't done or said anything." He replied. He wanted to say _yet_but stopped himself.

Lin sighed, frustration lingering on her. She turned and stood up but Tenzin took her wrist gently. He knew all too well that she will try to break way from his grip and she did.

"I don't want to see you again here." And she walked away, leaving the bar.

Tenzin turned to the wooden surface of the bartender's station. He rested his elbows there while he rested his chin on his interlocked fingers.

Lin.

She took it pretty hard when her men got captured by the Equalists. That was one thing he had always disapproved of her personality. She blamed herself wholly.

A letter from a distant cousin, a son of Toph's own cousin, had written to him a month after they broke up. He didn't want to open it for he was sure that it probably contained disappointment for his decision of ending their eighteen-year relationship for the sake of procreating. He even told himself that it was not his fault. It was his duty to spread the Airbenders, a task his father failed to do when he only managed one.

Tenzin never learned of the letter's contents until last night. Jinora gave it to him when she rummaged an old chest. Pray tell, he told himself, what would have happened if his other children were the one to discover the letter. He praised his eldest for her respect of privacy.

When the letter was on his hands he trembled. But it has been years since Lin and him broke up. He might as well read it.

The contents of it are what made him go and find Lin in the first place. He knew it would have been too late to talk about their separation but it was not late to comfort her about her captured subordinates.

He got a surprise though when he opened it.

_Tenzin._

_I know you have a duty to the airbenders and to your father. But was it really necessary for our love to end? I'm so sorry for my choices. I know we are not getting younger but please give us a chance again. I love you so much. I have realized I do want to bear your children. _

_I know what I told you then and I don't care what I said. What I know is that it was my own selfishness that made me refuse to bear a child. I always kept telling myself that I'm scared for I know I am reckless. Holding for a life is hard but two? I just don't want to disappoint you and myself._ _Especially myself._

_But I know my own insecurities will not help me. I will have to face bearing a child and at the age of 34 my body won't be able to carry a child for you soon._

_I'm sorry for everything but please let us try again. I am willing to try for you and for our future child._

_I love you, always._

_Lin_

Tenzin felt himself tear up.

He felt gentle tapping on his shoulder. It was the bartender.

"Hey buddy. Was that your friend?"

"Yes."

"She didn't pay."

**Aang looked at Toph with a mocked ego. But he knew her all to well to forgive her immediately. Besides she couldn't see his hurt expression anyway. He just smiled with her as he looked at their children sleeping side by side. Although he did felt sorry for Tenzin since Lin took away his favorite pillow.**

**He tapped Toph's shoulder. She nodded, turned away, and Aang closed the door.**


	2. Wishes

**Chapter 2 :)  
**

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**"Father?"**

**"Yes, my son?"**

**"I think I love Lin."**

**Aang's bearded jaw almost dropped at the bold declaration of his son.  
**

\(^o^)/

She cried and cried.

She cried while she was clutching the quill made of the peacock dog's feather. That feather was a gift from her late grandmother but she didn't care. Nothing else did.

It had been a two weeks since Tenzin broke up with her. Such a shame, everybody thought, for they were such a cute couple. A couple that had already endured so much.

The Dai Li rebellion to which Tenzin almost died.

The double bender that defied the laws of bending itself.

The Al Khoz war that tested their love in long distance because it separated them for a year.

And then there was Tenzin himself when he asked her just a couple of months ago to consider having a family.

To which she replied by standing up and going to the comfort room of the restaurant they were dining in that night. When she got there, she splashed her face with vast amounts of water, ruining a bit of her make-up. She didn't care though for she was a bit concerned with what to tell Tenzin.

_I am not yet ready._

She looked on the woman on the other side of the mirror. Her face was pale, clearly showing her nervousness and her eyeliner running halfway down her cheek. She shook her head, her reflection also doing the same and she hated that she had to come out of the restroom soon knowing that on her table where her untouched food is on, the man on the other side was excited of her yes.

Something she knew she wouldn't give.

She fixed herself with the make-up kit she was thankful that she took with her amidst the panic she felt. As she walked back to her table, she saw Tenzin, swirling his drink with bending. Then she smiled.

Why was she worried? This was Tenzin she was thinking of. She knew he would understand. She knew that he loved her and he will understand for she was not ready.

She just has to say it.

And she did.

Oh how she was wrong of her assumptions.

When she told him of her decision to wait a bit more, he showed his disapproval of it by saying that they were already in the right age to start a family. Actually, Lin couldn't remember much of what he said. Her mind had shut down that part of her memory like a defensive mechanism on her part. But she remembered that they were starting a scene in the restaurant. As Tenzin noticed it, he looked around and then left, a cold breeze she felt running across her nape, a feeling that still haunted her.

Painful months came by as Tenzin slowly but surely detached himself from Lin. He was upset.

And then he broke up with her.

_"I'm sorry but we are not going to work out."_

She teared again.

But Lin was still the strong woman that she was. Swallowing her fears and pride, she began to write a letter.

Knowing Tenzin, she knew that he won't open the letter if it was addressed from her since he really loved just running away from problems and hatred so instead of her, she wrote her cousin's name, who was also a good friend to Tenzin.

Lin hoped that this would save their relationship. She hoped that Tenzin will realize how wrong she was by refusing to give him a child and that she hoped that this letter would be proof enough that she indeed loved him and was ready to give everything to him.

Yes. This letter should do it, she said to herself.

\(^o^)/

**Lin went to her blind mother's bedroom. Toph was not there so the fourteen-year old tried to sense her mother through vibrations and she learned that her mother was on their garden practicing bending. She went there, a big smile on her face.**

**"MOM!" She called. "Why are you practicing when you said that you were already the greatest earthbender in the world?"**

**Her mother smiled and stopped her movements. When she sensed that her daughter was near, she put her hand on the top of Lin's head. "Because of reasons, Lin." She felt a tinge of excitement on her daughter's demeanor as she felt that her heartbeat was not normal. "Something on your mind?"**

**"Yeah mom." Lin said, a shy tone lingering on her voice.**

**"Pray tell." Toph urged.**

**"I like Tenzin." Lin said, her voice reduced to almost a whisper.**

**Toph couldn't help her smile turning into a big grin.**

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**I still mourn for the loss of this would-have-been epic relationship. Hope Bryke shows a flashback of these two still together in SPIRITS :3  
**


End file.
